


Why Shiro Falls

by ParisLily147



Series: Catch My Heart [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, American Football, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance gets beat up, Light Description of Violence, M/M, Pining Shiro???, Shiro (Voltron)-centric, The Galra - Freeform, kinda pining but at the end??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-27 03:20:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15676992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParisLily147/pseuds/ParisLily147
Summary: Homecoming spirit sweeps the small town of Altea up off of its feet. As the football games bring Lance and Shiro closer, what happens after the game introducing Shiro to a side of Lance he's never known. A side of Lance he'll come to love.





	Why Shiro Falls

Even through the plague-like intensity for this year’s homecoming game had found home in Lance, Lance was never too focused on the game to stop talking to Shiro. With Lance’s newfound ability to speak normally, Lance spent most of his time talking with Shiro. Sometimes they actually needed to talk such as when he needed football advice. Other times they would just start a conversation to listen to the other. Although they didn’t have any classes together, the two found the time. They talked whenever they bumped into each other in the halls, they talked while getting ready for practice ; they talked during and after. Lance snooped around and stole Shiro’s number, so they even chatted over weekends. Most of the time it was Lance rambling on and on about his schoolwork or his family or football, with Shiro laughing along or adding his own crazy stories.

Lance was Shiro’s new best friend (not that Shiro would ever say that to Keith). In true, new best friend fashion, they hung out at each other’s houses. Although the real reason, was so Lance could tutor Shiro. Shiro may be one of the brightest and best students of the school, but learning an entire new language is hard. They found out it really helped Shiro when they were at Lance’s place. His entire family speaks Spanish at home, so Shiro could try and talk with the other. Through Shiro’s teaching, he learned a lot about Lance and his crazy wacky family. They immigrated from Cuba when Lance was 5. Half of the family is still in Cuba. Everyone had different levels of English speaking ability. But most of all, he learned more about Lance. He learned Lance was the mother hen of his family when his mother wasn’t there and that he wanted to be a running back because his older brother was one in high school.  

With everything that Shiro learned about Lance, Lance learned something about Shiro. Shiro was an only child until Keith’s real family died after a house fire. Shiro may love playing football, but he doesn’t want to be a professional. Shiro wants to be an astronaut. Infinite space and the unknown had hooked Shiro’s curiosity since he was young. Shiro needs to pass his last year of Spanish to get into the Garrison, his dream school.

 

Every day seemed like a new opportunity for the two to get closer and closer. 

Lance was a lot more invested by the Galra v. Lions homecoming game than Shiro. Shiro knew that this was just one game on the way to the playoffs. Of course Shiro knew everyone’s nerves would be on edge, so he tried to be the stable minded player.

At least, that was his plan. He was able to keep a steady mindset throughout the craziness of the pep rally and the chaotic parade. He was the one sane enough to keep the team from jumping onto the other floats and keep them from injury. As captain, his job was to keep his team prepped and ready no matter what.  He knew that being captain put weight on his already droopy shoulders. But the entire world seemed to crash down on him as Shiro got a glimpse of a Garrison college scout waiting to get into the game. 

Before Shiro could even begin to implode into a ball of nerves and worry, a gentle hand landed on his shoulder.

“Okay Shiro, you will not believe what happened in Biology today! So you know that Keith, Hunk, and I are all in the same class so it was already chaos. But  when the teacher left the room unguarded.....”

Shiro didn’t know if Lance had noticed Shiro small freak out or if he just really wanted to tell Shiro about his dumb shenanigans, but Shiro couldn’t be more grateful for the temporary distraction. He wasn’t really listening to the story, just watching Lance’s expressions and crazy gestures as they got ready for the game. 

Homecoming began as any other football. National Anthem played, the crowd of students were rowdy, and all the partners waited their kids’ turn on field. The players had witnessed the beginning of a football game many times, so they played as any other game. It was an extreme back and forth game. No one pull ahead and no one fell behind. But just like that in 3rd quarter, Shiro pulled ahead. In a split second decision, Shiro had outmaneuvered their captain, Sendak, and threw a touchdown scoring pass. The Lions were in the lead and ready to race ahead of the Galra.

Before the boys could even celebrate, the sky spilt and the Pacific Ocean dropped onto everyone. Thunder and lightning shook the entire field and seemed to take over the feeling of celebration. If there wasn’t lightning, the boys would have continued playing on, however it was against many state rules to play after lightning strikes. 

The referees and coaches met up to discuss while the teams began to mock and toy with each other from either sideline. Just because they weren’t physically hitting each other, didn’t mean they didn’t want to mock the other team. 

Shiro was planning on stopping his team from playing along when Lance sprinted over to him with a huge grin and enveloped him into a big hug.

“Oh my god Shiro! That was so good! How did you do that? One second Sendak was about to get you and the next, you had Sendak on the ground and Ulaz was already in the end zone! How did you do that?!?”

Shiro couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at Lance’s sudden outburst and said, “I’m not exactly sure. I just saw he was coming and remembered the move you used with your younger brother, and bam. Touchdown.”

Lance eyes seemed to pop out of his head as he tripped over words, trying to find a response to Shiro’s honesty. 

“Wait? You mean? You.. I?”

Shiro smirked and said, “I hope you’ll be able to get over the stuttering a lot faster than you did last time.” 

An intense rush of heat and giddiness spread through Shiro from watching the way Lance immediately barked back and told Shiro off. But before Lance could really clap back at Shiro, the coaches announced the score was to stay as is and the game would be either rescheduled or left as is. It depended on the schools’ schedules.

Neither team was exactly happy about the score. However the Lions were winning, so they were a little happier about it. Everyone sprinted back into the school or back to their cars to prevent getting more soaked than they were. The Lions agreed to meet back in the school for a post ‘game’ huddle, so they all started sprinting that way. Before Shiro could begin to corral the team, Lance quickly ran past him and yelled something about his sister Veronica. Veronica was on the Lions cheerleading team and she always drove Lance home. He let Lance run towards the parking lot as he herded everyone else inside. 

The boys hesitantly went inside and sat in the cafeteria waiting for the coaches to make their speech. Some boys had already began getting out of their gear and getting everything dirty. Alfor and Coran soon came out of their office and Alfor started his recap of the boys performances. Before Alfor could get too into the speech, Coran stopped the speech and asked, “Anyone seen McClain?”

Shiro said, “He said he had to quick talk to his sister. I thought he already came in already.”

“Shiro can you and some others go find him? I don’t want him in the rain for too long. We don’t want a sick running back.”

Shiro nodded and made eye contact with Keith and began to get up and head out. Before Shiro fully stood up, Hunk was already by his side, dragging Keith along. Hunk was muttering under his breath about dumb Lance and probably some girl or boy. When the boys walked out of the doors, they noticed the rain had lightened up to a drizzle. Most people had left at that point but the lot was still full. They had barely gotten 50 feet away from the doors when they all noticed one of the cheerleaders sprinting over to them. It took Shiro a second to recognize Veronica, but Hunk must have known immediately. He quickly yelled her name and when she realized who they were, she came barreling at them.

“Hunk! Oh my god Hunk you have to help!” Veronica frantically shouted at him while trying to drag him away by the arm.

“What?”

“Some boys were following me and Lance noticed and now.....” her short pause gave Shiro the second to notice rain was the only thing running down her face.

“There’s too many for me to beat up myself.”

 

At first, Shiro didn’t register what she meant. Soon, his eyes were blown wide and fear coursed through every vein. His hands tensed at the images rushing through his head and in that moment, his thoughts were so worrisome he thought he might throw up. Lance was in danger and Shiro didn’t know why. Before Shiro could even exhale, he heard footsteps beginning to rush ahead of him. As if in a dense fog, he followed the sound of footsteps rather than focus on the others. He was only focusing on Lance.

 

Barely 10 yards in front of him, he found Lance. He was laying face up, although Shiro couldn’t see him through the body around him. Shiro didn’t know how many were there, but that didn’t matter. All he could think, hear and feel, was the low groans and shouts coming from Lance’s mouth as the boys continued their barrage of blows. 

 

Shiro’s body seemed to be overtaken by uncontainable rage. He didn’t think about anything. His body moved on its own straight into the huddled mass of men. He guessed Keith and Hunk followed, but everything seemed as if he was underwater.

 

Shiro didn’t resurface until he heard a small distressed whisper of his name. He immediately dropped the boy he was holding and rushed over to Lance’s side on the ground.

 

“..shiro?” Lance’s eyes were slightly open as Lance tried to move about. 

 

“Hey, don’t try and move around,” Shiro spoke softly as he started to assess Lance. “I need to check for broken bones. It might hurt you.” 

 

Lance grew a small smirk as he laid his head back on the ground before saying, “Everything hurt right now. Don’t worry.”

 

Shiro watched Lance’s face contort in pain and agony as Shiro made sure he was okay. Lance’s eyebrow scrunched up and he bit his lip to silence his pained pants. Seeing Lance this way, struck a chord in Shiro’s heart. It pulled at his very being to see Lance in such a state of distress. It got harder for Shiro to breath and his eyes started to itch with sadness. 

 

“What did you do Lance?” He asked Lance as he finished his check over of Lance.

 

“Some, asses were, after Ronni. They...they didn’t enjoy me saying. To take it up the ass.” As Lance told Shiro, his smirk got bigger as if he was proud of being beat up over some comment. Shiro frowned at Lance’s smile and said, 

 

“You are a real dumbass McClain. Now let’s get you inside. Can I pick you up?”

 

“Yep, your beefy arms...can manhandle me any day.” Both Shiro and Lance give a quick laugh to that, and Shiro felt a little better about Lance. If he was well enough to make that comment, he should be fine.

 

Shiro gently threw his arms beneath Lance’s shoulders and knees, before slowly bringing him close to his chest. With the rain continuing to soak the boys, Lance turned in towards Shiro body heat. Shiro stood up and starting walking back to the school. 

 

Before Shiro could get too close to the school, he noticed Veronica dragging the coaches and a few players over to him. She must have run inside and Shiro never noticed. He was too focused on Lance.

 

Alfor and Coran noticed him walking over and they jogged over to meet Shiro. They immediately ushered Shiro and Lance into the school and asked,

 

“What happened Shiro?”

 

“A few boys ganged up on Lance. I think he has a broken rib.”

 

“Oh my,” Coran started “Well let’s get the boy inside. We’ll call the ambulance.”

 

The rest of the team perked up when Shiro walk into the school. They stood up and like a tidal wave, crashed into Shiro with worry and questions. Shiro gently put Lance down on a table and let Alfor and Coran take over. Ulaz and Thace immediately pulled Shiro away and pelted him with questions.

“What happened?” “Yeah!” “Is Lance gonna be okay?” “Where’s Keith and Hunk?” “Who did this?”

“Just let me explain.” Shiro said to get everyone’s attention before saying, 

“Lance went to go talk with his sister after the game but four Galra fans were following her. Lance made a comment to them after telling them to stop, and they weren’t exactly happy. Lance’s sister noticed the fight and found us. It wasn’t too long of a fight, but four versus one wasn’t exactly good on Lance’s half.”

Before anyone could really respond or think of other questions, they heard ambulance sirens coming, so Shiro made his way back to Lance. He sat down near Lance’s head and rested a hand on his shoulder. Lance was conscious, but groggy at best. He noticed Shiro and asked, 

 

“Did…. did I win?” The team must have been listening because laughter swept over the room as Shiro replied.

“In a way, yes.” 

“Awesome.” Lance said as Coran began to sat him up. Shiro was so focused on Lance’s pained smile and hurting eyes, he didn’t notice the ambulance sirens had been getting closer. It wasn’t until two medics barreled through the front doors when he finally realized it.

 

The medics ran over to Lance and the coaches. They brought a gurney and began slowly moving Lance onto it. They quickly turned to the coaches and asked a few questions. One of the medic’s must have been looking at Shiro because he ran over and said

“That’s a pretty nasty cut. You may need stitches, why don’t you come with?”

 

Shiro wasn’t exactly sure what he might, but he nodded and followed them outside to the ambulance. He glanced at his reflection in the metal doors of the ambulance and saw that the bridge of his nose was bleeding. The adrenaline and worry for Lance made him ignore the pain and the feeling of blood running down his face.

The ride to the hospital was uneventful for Shiro. All he could do was sit patiently and wait for the ride to be over. Although the ambulance wasn’t blaring sirens on the way to the hospital, it was a quick drive. 

They arrived at the hospital and the medics wheeled Lance into the ER, and into a separate room. A nurse wasn’t far behind for Shiro. He was put in a normal ER bed and told someone would be there soon to do his stitches. He sat down on the bed and couldn’t help but wonder what had gone down with the fight. It was barely a minute later when another nurse came over to stitch him up. He only need a few stitches for the cut, so it wasn’t too long before the nurse was done. 

 

The nurse asked him to fill out some paperwork and contact his parents about insurance. Shiro made the quick call home to explain what happened, and if his parents weren’t currently visiting his grandmother, they would have drove straight there. However they couldn’t so they gave him the insurance information and promised to be home early.

 

When Shiro finished with his mom and dad, he noticed that he had 7 missed calls from Keith. Shiro clicked to call Keith back and before the end of the first ring, he heard Hunk’s voice.

 

“Shiro?” 

“Yeah Hunk, it’s me. Uh, where’s Keith?” 

“Driving. Here let me put you on speaker.....” Shiro heard a bit of shuffling before his ear was blown off by, 

“TAKASHI SHIROGANE!! You went to the hospital and didn’t even think to tell me!?!”

“It’s okay Keith.” Shiro tried to calm him down but Keith immediately cut him off

“IT’S OKAY?!? How is this okay? Are you hurt? Dying? For all I know I am talking to a ghost!” In the background Shiro could hear the muffler of Keith’s car, so Shiro knew that Keith was intensely speeding, probably to the hospital.

“Keith, they just wanted to patch up a nasty cut on my nose. I’m fine. It’s Lance you should be more worried about.” Shiro simply stated to help Keith chill out.

“Speaking of Lance,” Hunk took over the phone and switched from speaker “how is he?” Hunk sounded immensely worried even through the phone.

“To be honest Hunk, I’m not to sure. The medic didn’t do too much on the ambulance and they immediately moved him into a separate room. I’d tell you if I knew more. I’m worried too.”

“Okay, well. Lance’s parents may be there before us. Mrs. McClain has a worse lead foot than Keith, so just an fyi.”

“Thanks for the heads up Hunk. How far away are you?”

“Two minute stop with Keith’s driving.”

“Okay good. How’s the team?”

 

“Well Alfor and Coran had to talk to the Galra boys, and the police were called and stuff. So we were all stuck at the school for a few minutes.”

 

“Are you guys the only ones coming here?”

 

“Nah, I think a few others are coming.” 

 

“Okay, well I think I saw the McClain’s car speeding in, so I’ll see you in a few.”

 

“See you soon Shiro. Bye.”

 

“Bye.” Shiro put his phone away just as the McClain gang came through the doors. Mr. McClain headed immediately to the front desk as Mrs. McClain noticed Shiro and ran to give him a big hug.

Shiro was in Spanish for four years, however with how fast and worried Mrs. McClain sounded, he only grabbed a few words from her worried speech. He heard something about him being hurt and Lance being okay. He didn’t even have a chance to try and reply to her before Lance’s other siblings came over and started asking questions all at the same time.

They were just like the teams’ questions, so Shiro tried answering them as best as he could. It was barely 6 answers later when Mr. McClain broke them up and told them which room Lance was going to be moved to. Mrs. McClain, being the sweetheart she is asked him, 

“¿Tú quieres venir con nosotros?” (Do you want to come with us?)

“Yo hace esperar para Keith y Hunk.”(I have to wait for Keith and Hunk)

“Tu es bienvenido a venir después.” (You are welcome to come after)

“Gracias, Señora McClain.” (Thank you Mrs. McClain.)

“De nada Takashi.” (Anytime Takashi.)

The McClains soon rushed off further into the hospital after their goodbyes. Before he could even take a breath, the entire football team came barging in the ER. They were soon directed to the waiting room while Keith and Hunk (who arrive with them) helped check Shiro out.

The nurse let them into the waiting room to wait for Lance. Before anyone could say hello to Shiro, Keith punching his shoulder.

“You. Little. Bitch. You just had to get hurt. And. Not. Tell. Me.”

From how worried Keith was, he threw surprisingly heavy punches.  Hunk had to get in between the boys for Keith to stop.

“I just got a cut Keith. You need to chill out.” Shiro calmly stated as he sat down in an empty chair next to Alfor.

“You got stitches.” Keith practically spit at him as he sat down right next to him.

“And yet, I’m fine.” Shiro snarked back at Keith

“For now. Wait until mom and dad see the bill. You’ll be dead."

Shiro couldn’t exactly snark back because Keith was right, so he decided just to leave it there. No one was really talking, everyone was just patiently waiting, napping or on their phones. It was a little under half an hour later when a nurse came in and announced,

“McClain’s non-family.”

Everyone immediately jumped from their chairs and surrounded the nurse.

“He has a pretty nasty concussion, a few hurt ribs and a massive amount of bruising covered his body. Thankful no broken bones or major injuries. Mrs. McClain has requested I allow you to see him.” Everyone’s moods were instantly brightened and everyone was anxious to go see him.

“However I will only allow a few in at a time. He must not look at phones for the next week so phones will not be out. No more stress to his head, alright?”

A large wave of nodding sweep the room as the nurse quickly found the coaches. They had a quick talk before she headed back out. 

The coaches choose to have people go to see him in small groups for max. 20 minutes. After tonight, people could come back and see him whenever they wanted.  Shiro, Keith, and Hunk mutually agreed to go last so they could convince the McClain’s and staff to let them stay overnight. 

Just after twelve thirty, the coaches came down to the waiting room and said everyone else was done with visiting. 

“Mrs. McClain has been asking for you.” Alfor stated before they waved goodbye and promised to be back tomorrow.

The boys slowly shuffled over to the elevator and found their way to the room. Hunk was in the room first, and he immediately found the McClain’s hugging him like he was another brother.

Shiro and Keith came in behind him and shuffled over to Lance’s bed. He was awake, but alert wasn’t the word to describe him. He was yawning and slowly chatting with his sister. He was barely staying conscious.

“Hey.” As soon as Shiro spoke, Lance turned away from his sister and saw him and Keith.

“Hey guys. You waited this long?” He said while trying to wipe the sleepiness from his eyes.

“Of course. How are you feeling?” Shiro knew Keith was worried but he had troubling with big groups, so Shiro took the lead. 

“They put me on meds, so I am feeling good.” Right after Lance said that, he was briskly crushed in oblivion by Hunk’s bear hug. Hunk was most likely crying his eyes out, but no one could tell because he had his head buried in Lance’s hair.

“You're a fricking idiot, you know that right?” Hunk mumbled into his hair, as Lance laughed.

“You mean a heroic knight in shining armor.”

As Shiro glanced around the room, all of the McClain’s were yawning and settling in the one couch and few chairs in the room. Mrs. McClain offered the three a chair to share, but they had seen some down the hall they were going to nap in. They promised Lance they’d be back soon and turned to leave the room. Hunk gave Lance one last hug, Keith and Lance nodded at each other, and Lance made Shiro pinky promised they’d be back.

 

He heard Hunk and Keith leave the room as he said goodbye so he followed and closed the door. Shiro stood at the closed door, hand still on the handle. All of what happened today was hard to believe. Lance threw himself between his sister and four weirdos without thinking. And here they were in the hospital. He was trying his hardest to wrap his head around the situation. Before he could keep wondering????, Hunk came over to him and said, 

 

“You know he’ll be alright.” For the worrisome worrier Hunk is, Shiro was thrown for a loop at how certain he sounded about his best friend being beat up.

“How do you know that?” Shiro said as he let go of the door handle, and continued to watching the door.

“This isn’t his first fight.”

Shiro brow scrunched up and Shiro turned to stare at Hunk in utter confusion.

As if Hunk could read his thoughts, he said, “Yeah I know he doesn’t look like much of a fighter, but his family means a lot to him.” That confused Shiro even more, why was his family involved in his fights? 

Keith came over and quickly added onto Hunk’s comment. “He only gets into fights if it is about his siblings. One of the guys in our grade called his sister a piece of ass and Lance broke his nose.”

Hunk quickly finished with, “He’d do anything for his family, no matter what happens to his well being. He’d, like, die for them.”

Shiro couldn’t find any words inside him to respond with, so he slowly nodded. After a few seconds of silence between the boys, Keith and Hunk went back over to the hall with the chairs they’ll sleep on. Shiro stayed rooted to the spot outside of the door, but he was watching inside of the room. Mrs. McClain was chatting with Lance as she settled into the chair right next to the bed.  Shiro saw through the glass as Lance said something that made his mother start laughing from her seat. He couldn’t help but smile at how joyful Lance was, even now. 

Shiro must have been standing there for awhile, because Lance looked at the window and noticed Shiro. A little embarrassed, Shiro smiled and waved at him. Lance throw him back a big grin and aggressively waved back. Shiro found himself chuckling at Lance’s craziness and he started walking down the hall. Barely ten feet away from the door, Shiro felt off. He felt different than before.

 

It wasn’t a major difference. He just had a little more pep to his step. And wanting to smile seemed as normal as breathing. He just wanted to talk and laugh and have fun. With Lance.

 

He didn’t realize that every thought Shiro now had, involved Lance. Playing football was with Lance. School was a place to see Lance. College was something Shiro and Lance talked about. His parents and brothers knew Lance. 

 

It was like Lance had crawled into Shiro’s mind and implanted himself everywhere. Shiro couldn’t think without Lance anymore. He couldn’t breathe without him, and most importantly couldn’t feel without him. 

 

It wasn’t some slow, dramatic shift in Shiro’s feeling had happened. It was in a split second, he just knew. He liked Lance. Undoubtedly and unabashedly liked Lance. Possibly even loved.

  
  



End file.
